Historically, downvotes have been a contentious feature for social media platforms. In fact, one truly mainstream platform, YouTube, and another not so mainstream, Reddit, are the only ones that have a downvoting system in place. The concern of the rest of the platforms is that it could become an instrument to spread hate and, well, they are already dealing with problems of hate speech as they are right now.

But this seems to be about to change, starting with Facebook. Analysts have reported that the social media giant is testing adding a downvote option, although, so far, exclusively for FB Groups. Comments to posts in Groups will have a measurement based on a point system, and key to the feature is that a downvote will not represent a ‘dislike’ but rather a judgement whether said comment adds value to the Group.

Will users use it as it is intended or will it become another tool to create echo-chambers of sorts and exacerbate division? We will have to find out!

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